Well despite a combonation of my hard drive dying a month ago and unnessisary laziness, I finaly got this story going again. Oddly before this I...ok you're probaly tired of listening to me going on about random crap to take up space, so enjoy.

Chapter 3-Rising Conflict

'You think they're doing ok?'' Dare asked Slash.

The two were keeping to a distance watching Vixen teaching the cubs
hunting technique, and of course he wasn't paying attention himself. He
was keeping to his personal promise to keep an eye on Dreamer who
was, as usual, in her own world and not paying attention to her mother.

“They’re doing pretty well, though Friendly shows promise.'' Slash
replied, as he watched the lesson carefully.

He had been keeping a close eye on how each cub did on their turn.
Bold had been overconfident on his go and Charmer still had to try
harder.

Suddenly he looked up and behind him as something moved in the grass
just behind his field of vision. The moment of caution passed as Rabbit's
mate came out of the grass and bounded up to Slash and Dare.

''Don't panic, but I saw some blue foxes coming this way.'' She said, and
she pointed towards where she had seen the blues.

Dare immediately looked up and started to move so he could have a
better chance of intercepting anyone before they reached the cubs.
Slash nodded and stayed where he was so he could move quickly if he
was needed.

Dare had guessed right and after just a few seconds he caught sight of
blue, it was Scarface, sneaking toward Dreamer who was still on her
own.

Barely getting his timing right, Dare leapt forward and collided with
Scarface. Dare’s action gave a startled Dreamer time to run for the
earth.

''Dammit, this never goes smooth.'' Slash growled to himself as he saw
the fight start between Dare and Scarface.

Before he could move close enough to get involved with the fight
though, another blue blocked his path. It was Bounder.

''Why try and fight us?'' He smirked. ''Father is far stronger than any fox
in the park and you're deluded to think that you or anyone could win.
Join us and you can unlock you're true potential.''

Slash growled and dropped into a fighting pose, willing to let his teeth
do the talking. Knowing how this would go Bounder dropped back and
moved away from the fight, irritated that he had failed to bring one of
the newcomers over to his side.

“Consider my offer though” he called back as he ran off.

“Father won’t accept failure from me this time.” thought Bounder as he
waited a small distance away for his father.

Dare growled as he hit the floor. He had been practically unable to make
any mark on Scarface, whereas he now had a bleeding cut along the
front of his muzzle.

Normally he would have fled from a fight by now, but he wanted to be
sure he'd given the cubs enough time to get to cover.

Finally he knew he had succeeded in changing the flow of the fight
when Vixen joined the fray.

“Thought that you could use with some help." said Vixen as she dodged
an attack.

“Thanks.” Dare replied quickly as he launched another attack at the
stronger enemy. “Are the cubs safe?”

Vixen nodded quickly, and Dare breathed an inner sigh of relief as he
continued to fight Scarface, who he saw was now on the back foot.

Vixen was soon followed into the fight by Slash and very quickly the
three of them began to quickly overpower Scarface.

Seeing the three red foxes that had confronted him, Scarface knew
he'd lost the edge and he quickly started to retreat. Before he left the
area, Scarface looked back at Vixen and smiled menacingly.

“This is will not be the last you see of me.” He growled, glancing at the
cubs who were cowering near Fox. “This is only the beginning.”

With a final glance at the red foxes Scarface swiftly departed.

=======

Dare hardly heard the thanks and congratulations for his brave effort
as he headed over to the earth where Fox was waiting with Dreamer.
Dare simply nodded and dripped a little blood onto his paw from the cut
along his muzzle.

“Thank you Dare for saving Dreamer and for providing the others a
chance to get away.” said Fox appreciatively. “Without you being here,
Dreamer may have been slaughtered by Scarface.”

Again, Dare simply inclined his head in recognition to Fox’s thanks.

“It’s extremely lucky that you two were around.” remarked
Vixen. “Thank you so much for stepping in to protect her.”

“Oh, it’s nothing.” said Dare. “I was doing my part in keeping your cubs
safe from Scarface.”

Slash trotted up to Dare and smiled.

“Nice work there.” He said. “Sorry I wasn’t fighting sooner, but another
blue stopped me from reaching you.”

“I was wondering what was keeping you.” remarked Dare. “But it was
good of you too arrive when you did. I don’t think that I could’ve
managed to hold him off for any longer.”

“To me it looked like that you were doing just fine on your own.” said
Slash.

He turned his attention to Fox and Vixen.

“Anyway, I have something important to tell you.” said Slash to the
other three foxes. “That blue who was blocking me offered me to join
him and the other blues.”

Fox and Dare looked up sharply at hearing Slash’s words.

“What else did he say?” demanded Fox.

Slash thought about it and shrugged.

“I’m not too sure, but he said something about his father being the
strongest fox in the park, and that I can unlock my true potential by
joining them.” He said.

Fox silently contemplated what Slash had said.

“What do you think this means?” asked Vixen. “What do you think they
are planning?”

Fox looked away from them and towards where the blues had their
territory.

“I don’t know,” he said quietly. “I just don’t know."

“Well, if he thinks that’s going to make you join them Slash, then he’s
very mistaken.” commented Dare.

“Yes...he is mistaken.” replied Slash, his thoughts clearly somewhere
else.

“My true potential...that does sound tempting.” He thought,
remembering Bounder’s offer.

Realising what he was thinking, Slash quickly cast the thought aside. As
much as he liked the idea of unlocking his true potential and was
tempted to do so, he knew that he couldn’t betray his own kind to do so.

“Besides,” thought Slash. “Why do I need to join the blue foxes in order
to unlock my true potential? And do I really need to realise my true
potential when I’m happy with the way things are?”

“We better get going and leave you two alone to deal with your cubs.”
said Dare, interrupting Slash’s thoughts.

Fox and Vixen nodded. Grateful for the interruption in his thoughts,
Slash dipped his head respectfully at the Fox and Vixen before walking
off.

“Thank you again for stepping in back there Dare.” said Fox. “Things
may have been very different if you hadn’t have been around.”

Dare acknowledged Fox’s thanks with a nod before he turned away to
head off after Slash, who was waiting patiently a short distance away.

As Dare turned to go he heard another 'thank you' which made him turn
around and smile when he realised that Dreamer had been the one to
say it.

“You’re most welcome.” He said to Dreamer before running to catch up with Slash.

“I think I’m really starting to like Dreamer.” thought Dare happily. “She’s such a nice
cub.”

=======

After Scarface had met Bounder at the rendezvous the two of them had
quickly left for their own territory. Once there, Scarface rounded on
Bounder.

“So, did you mange to convince him to join us?” he asked.

Bounder’s heart sank as he realised that he had failed.

“No, I didn’t.” He replied miserably. “The fox I approached didn’t even
consider a word that I said. He just snarled and got ready to attack me,
so I retreated back to our meeting point."

''So you failed AGAIN?!'' Scarface yelled angrily. “I ask you to fulfil a
simple task, and what do you do? Run and hide like a coward!”

Bounder cowered under his father's wrath. Failure was never normally
tolerated by Scarface, which made the lack of punishment strange and
confusing to Bounder.

In his mind however, Scarface had quickly forgotten about Bounder and
his failure. He had known that a direct approach wouldn’t have worked
in convincing their target to join them.

Instead, Scarface’s mind was at work, plotting to continue his master
plan on a different level as he started to walk back to his den.

Bounder watched his father walk for a while before following Scarface.
He was careful to follow him at a safe distance in case he remembered
that he was still there and decided to punish him. However, Scarface
was still focused on his own thoughts to worry about Bounder.

“I will get one of those reds to join us,” thought Scarface savagely as
he entered his den. “And I will reclaim all my lost territory from those
Farthing Wood animals. Even if it’s the last thing I do.”

****
Slash (C)  slash-fox
Dare (C) Me
All other characters, settings and universe (C) Colin Dann